The 3-Minute Story and Big Idea
When you think of a 3-minute story, what comes to mind? For me, it’s TikTok’s 2020 rollout of videos that are up to three minutes in length. If you’re unfamiliar with TikTok, I encourage you to check it out. You can find everything from recipe cooking videos (here’s a delish pasta recipe I made yesterday) to dog training videos, and even data visualization racing bar charts. The typical TikTok video lasts 1 minute or less—until they chose to extend the video upload limit to 3 minutes.
Racing bar chart showing GDP change over time.
Why did TikTok decide to extend their videos to 3-minutes? The theory is that 3 minutes allows for just a little more content—such as a full movie trailer—and this might reduce the temptation for the content creator to choose to post to YouTube instead of TikTok. Before 3 minutes, many content creators added Part 2 and Part 3 to their videos—without guaranteeing that the audience would decide to watch the sequel videos.
Whatever the reason, when I read about the new 3-minute TikTok videos, the first thing that came to my mind was Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic’s 3-minute story and Big Idea Strategy laid out in Storytelling with Data (and also in one of her blog posts). Cole teaches us the magic of boiling down your Big Idea (or story “so what”) into a single and concise statement, and then sharing that Big Idea in just 3 minutes takes a little more work but can become a rewarding experience.
Here are some of the benefits of using the 3-minute story approach:
You will see a more confident you. Memorizing and rehearsing a 3-minute presentation is easier than preparing a 20-minute presentation where you cover every detail on a topic (and, in the process, put your audience to sleep). A 3-minute story is a win-win for both the presenter and the audience. Most presenters can confidently speak for 3 minutes, and the audience's attention span should hold for that long (even though there is evidence that our attention span is now a mere 8 seconds).
Limiting your presentation to 3 minutes will make you look like you have mastered the topic. Being brief is the essence of intelligence. We have all heard the Hamlet quote, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” And the humorous story of the insult Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart allegedly received from Austrian Emperor Joseph II after he was bored by what he considered a long performance as portrayed in the movie Amadeus: “My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening … don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few, and it will be perfect.” Sometimes, our audience may think we are using “too many notes [words]” to get our Big Idea across, and like the Emperor, they want to hear less, not more.
“Too many notes.”
You will be less dependent on your slide deck and use fewer slides. Some of us love adding slides to our slide decks. One idea triggers another idea, and then we end up with a slide deck that will exceed our allotted amount of presentation time. We may have all the time in the world to tell our story (the SNL Old Prospector comes to mind), but most audiences appreciate it when we quickly articulate our story using just a few slides. And if we memorize our 3-minute story, we won’t become dependent on the slides to remind us of our next point to share (the infamous “Next slide, please,” said in a monotone voice).
You will be prepared for the unexpected. It’s not unusual for one or more presenters in a meeting to go over their allotted time. Sometimes, the audience may ask questions that prolong the presentation even if the presenter stays within the time limits. If your presentation is at the end of the meeting agenda, being ready to present your story in 3-minutes shows that you are prepared to present and a flexible and adaptable team member.
You may get more opportunities to share your story. If you can share your story effectively in just 3-minutes, audience members may be more inclined to invite you to share your story with other groups. “Hey, that was a great presentation. We would love you to present your idea in our upcoming staff meeting. We only have a few minutes left on the agenda, so your presentation will fit nicely into the schedule.”
Does the Storytelling with Data 3-minute Story and Big Idea Approach really work in practice? Read my next post, where I share what happened with an actual student cohort. Do you think the students met the 3-minute Big Idea challenge?
The featured image above is from Storytelling with Data.
